La Salle need everything it could get from senior quarterback Chris Kane — and the rest of his receivers — in Saturday’s overtime thriller, where they beat longttime rival St. Joseph’s Prep in the PCL AAAA championship game, 28-27, at Plymouth Whitemarsh.

Two weeks after a Kane-less Explorer team won a game against West Catholic that exposed significant offensive problems for La Salle, a recently banged-up Kane came up big, finishing with 338 yards on passes to six different receivers, to go along with four touchdowns through the air.

Kane talked about how the past week has mitigated the effect of his injury after the game, saying, “Last week was pretty tough, I couldn’t really move much. But all week at practice, I felt good, and coming into today, I felt almost 100 percent.

He certainly performed that way, saving the best for last on a five-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Sean Coleman, who finished the game with 133 yards on 13 catches and three scores.

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Kane gave credit to Coleman and talked about his impact as a play-maker after the game saying, “Sean’s great. All you’ve gotta do is get him the ball and he’s gonna score.”

The play prior to the game-winner was a pass that went in and out of the hands of wide-open sophomore Jimmy Herron. That play wasn’t on Kane’s mind in the next huddle, as he explained after the game. “We’re not thinking about that at all,” he emphasized. “We’re thinking about the next play. That was first down, and we’ve got three more plays after that to get five yards. We liked our chances with that.”

Coach Drew Gordon spoke in a markedly different tone this week about what the difference was between Saturday’s Kane-led Explorers and the team that played two weeks ago against West Catholic.

“The coaches as well as the players really challenged themselves this week,” he explained, “We emphasized the teamwork, watching each other’s backs, the camaraderie of football. It’s the way you have to play this game, especially against a team like (Prep).”

He also highlighted how proud of his team he was for playing as hard as they did, saying, “You have to be vicious, tackling hard, taking people to the ground, knocking them around and everything else, and we got it done.”

La Salle (10-1) looks to carry its success into next week’s first round of the Pennsylvania AAAA state playoff match-up against the Frankford Pioneers (8-2). The Pioneers won 30-16 against George Washington Saturday.